Vice President's Secretariat
Practice ‘Educate and Enforce’ to promote safe driving: Vice President
Post accident response system should be robust and very responsive;
Wearing helmets and seat belts must be implemented strictly and effectively;
Flags off the CCI Car Rally for Parliamentarians
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has advised to practice ‘Educate and Enforce’ to promote safe driving and avoid road accidents. He was addressing the gathering at an event to flag off the Car Rally for Parliamentarians organized by the Constitution Club of India to promote awareness on road safety, here today.
The Vice President said that he was happy to know that CCI Rally is being organised every year to promote responsible driving and to pay tributes to all those who lost their lives in road accidents, including Ministers and MPs. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families, he added.
Shri Naidu said that every year, road accidents claim over one lakh lives and in most cases, victims are youngsters. These tragedies are avoidable if basic precautions are taken, he asaid. Negligence, over-speeding, disobeying traffic rules, drunken driving & bad roads are the reasons for most road accidents, he added.
The Vice President said that these rallies are essential to create awareness and promote road safety. He further said that road safety campaigns should be launched in all high schools and colleges. The media should be used to highlight the importance of safe driving and celebrities should also keep speaking about road safety, he added.
Shri Naidu suggested to adopt “SAFE” principles to prevent road accidents:
S - Speed in limit
A - Awareness spreading
F - Follow traffic rules
E - Empathise with the victims
The Vice President said that stipulations like wearing helmets and seat belts must be implemented strictly and effectively. Faulty road designs and frequent accident prone zones should be identified and adequate precautionary measures must be taken to prevent road accidents, he said. Scientific management of traffic, smart policing and stringent punishment to rules violators will aid ensuring better behavior on roads, he added.
Saying that the mantra to be practiced is ‘Educate and Enforce’ to promote safe driving, the Vice President said that educate the citizens about traffic rules and responsible driving and then enforce the rules in the most stringent manner.
Shri Naidu said that it is also important to ensure the safety of pedestrians. Footpaths have virtually disappeared from our bustling cities and there is a need to develop exclusive pedestrian zones and those encroaching the walkers zone should be penalized, he added.
The Vice President said that the post accident response system should be robust and very responsive. We should all contribute to make India the country with least number of road accidents in the world, he added.
The Member of Parliament and the President of the Constitution Club of India, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the Member of Parliament, Shri Prasanna Kumar Patasani and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Following is the text of Vice President’s address:
“At the outset, let me compliment the Constitution Club of India for organising a car rally to promote awareness on road safety.
I am happy to know that CCI Rally is being organised every year to promote the noble cause of responsible driving and to pay tributes to all those who lost their lives in road accidents, including ministers and MPs. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families.
Every year, road accidents are claiming over one lakh lives—a staggering number. And in most cases, those who die in these mishaps are youngsters. These tragedies which cause deep anguish and pain in the minds of the family members and friends of the accident victims are totally avoidable and require basic precautions to be taken.
Negligence, over-speeding, disobeying traffic rules, drunken driving and bad roads are the reasons for most road accidents.
These types of rallies are essential to create awareness and promote road safety. Road safety campaigns should be launched in all high schools and colleges. The media, particularly electronic media should be used to highlight the importance of safe driving and perhaps the services of well-known public personalities, icons in the fields of art culture sports etc could be sought for promoting these campaigns.
We need to adopt “SAFE” principles to prevent road accidents:
S- Speed in limit
A- Awareness spread
F- Follow traffic rules
E- Empathise with the victims
The fuel filling stations should also be used to disseminate the information. We need to think innovatively to ensure that more and more people, particularly the youngsters implement road safety measures. Stipulations like wearing helmets and seat belts must be implemented strictly and effectively.
Faulty road designs and frequent accident prone zones should be identified and adequate precautionary measures must be taken to prevent road accidents.
Scientific management of traffic, smart policing and stringent punishment to rules violators will aid ensuring better behavior on roads.
Thus the mantra to be practiced is ‘ Educate and Enforce’ to promote safe driving. Educate the citizens about traffic rules and responsible driving and then enforce the rules in the most stringent manner. We as a society have the collective responsibility to spread the awareness about road safety.
It is also important to ensure the safety of pedestrians. Footpaths have virtually disappeared from our bustling cities and there is a need to develop exclusive pedestrian zones. Those encroaching gthe walkers zone should be penalized.
Post accident response system should be robust and very responsive.
I would like to congratulate MP and Secretary of CCI Shri. Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Dr. Raghupati Singhania, CMD of JK Tyre Industries for their constant support to road safety campaigns.
I would also like to compliment the MPs and other eminent personalities who came to support this noble cause and promote safe driving.
Keeping the roads safe and bringing down accidents on the road is also the vision of our Honourable Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi and he has spoken at length in his 'Mann Ki Baat' on this aspect.
All the citizens of India should ensure that his vision is fulfilled and we should strive to make India the country with least number of road accidents in the world.
I would like to once again compliment all of you for organising this important rally.
JAI HIND!”